Originally published September 12 2005
Even the insured struggle to pay medical bills
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Even those with medical insurance are suffering financially because of rising health care costs, and 62 percent of people struggling to pay medical bills have insurance, according to a survey by USA Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health.
Sixty-two percent of those struggling to pay medical bills have health insurance, underscoring how increasing premiums, deductibles and gaps in coverage are affecting families.
The survey, a wide-ranging look at the impact of medical costs on the nation's families, found that 28% of adults were unable to pay for some form of medical care in the past year.
Many who cannot pay skimp on health care, go without prescription drugs or simply ignore their bills, the survey showed.
Surprisingly, costs are less of a problem for the elderly, most of whom are covered by Medicare, even though it has seen a 71% increase in monthly premiums since 2000.
Those in that vast swath of Middle America were far more likely than those richer or older to report not having enough money to pay for medical costs in the past year (33%), to have paid $1,000 or more in out-of-pocket costs for care (31%) or to have skipped medical treatment or a prescription because of the cost (34%).
Managed care held down increases during the mid-1990s, but backlash against the restrictions led the strictest types of plans to fall into disfavor and costs rose again.
Most health cost experts, such as Paul Ginsburg, an economist at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C., say there is no single answer to controlling rising costs.
Such plans come with at least a $1,000 annual deductible for individuals and $2,000 for families, meaning patients must themselves pay for care until reaching those limits.
"It's the first kind of reform targeted at consumers," says Robert Helms, a resident scholar in health policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. Managed care, he says, attempted to control costs by cutting payments to doctors and hospitals.
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